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Pricing FAQ for Legacy Users

by Intuit•3• Updated 2 months ago

On May 15, we announced an updated pricing structure for new users that better reflects what Mailchimp offers as an all-in-one Marketing Platform.

Our new pricing structure applies to anyone who signed up for a Mailchimp account on or after May 15, 2019.

We call everyone who already had an open account with us a “legacy user.” All legacy paid users on monthly plans will continue to see their plans automatically upgrade and downgrade based on the number of subscribers in their accounts. Legacy users with free accounts and Pay As You Go credits will see some changes.

To help clarify these changes, we put together this guide based on some common questions we’ve received from legacy users.

Over the past few years, we've listened to customer feedback and requests for features and functionality, and we've made changes to our platform and pricing structure with our customers' needs in mind. That said, while we planned for as many scenarios as possible, we’re aware that there are some edge cases where some customers are impacted more than others. We’ve outlined some of those edge cases in this guide as well, and we’re working with affected customers.

General

What are the new pricing plans?
Mailchimp now offers 4 main pricing plans for new users or legacy paid users who choose to switch to a new plan: Premium, Standard, Essentials, and Free. We can also work with larger and more advanced users to customize a plan to meet their needs.

Whether you're just starting out, growing your business, or already working with a large number of contacts, we have an option that fits your marketing needs. We also offer a Pay As You Go alternative, as well as add-on features that you can use to supplement your plan. To see a complete list of features for each plan, check out our pricing page.

Why is this happening now?
Previously, users chose between free or paid accounts. We’ve consistently heard that our users think they’ve outgrown us because they don’t know about all of the features the platform offers. Our new plans will help users start with Mailchimp’s Marketing Platform and then add more features as they grow.

As a legacy user, you’ve been the first to have access to many of these features and our new platform design. You’ll continue to have the same level of access going forward, but you may find value in switching to a new plan at some point in the future.

How do the new pricing plans impact legacy users: Free, Monthly, and Pay As You Go?

For Legacy Free plan Users

Do you still have a Free plan?
Yes! We still provide a Free plan to help small businesses get started with their marketing.

I’m a legacy Free plan user, has my plan changed?
Yes. You will be moved to the new Free plan, but will retain continued access to many features you used while on the old Free plan, like automation series, as well as additional features included in the new plan.

What is included in the new Free plan?
The new Free plan allows you to get started on your marketing with all the basics. With the legacy Free plan, you'll still have 12,000 monthly email sends and 2,000 contacts in your audience. You can also access Mailchimp’s CRM tools, basic reporting and analytics, and marketing channels such as email and landing pages. Pop-up forms, pre-built templates, and classic automations like welcome, thank you, and abandoned carts are also included in the legacy Free plan. Here are the plan’s other features.

1 audience
Basic templates
Marketing CRM
Single-step automations
Basic reporting
Smart recommendations
1 seat (Owner Role)

Will I be able to keep sending other automations I set up before May 15?
Yes. Any automations you set up before May 15 will continue sending.

Legacy free users who created series automations before May 15th will have access to all series automations and functionality.

How many audiences and contacts come with the Free plan?
Legacy free plan users can have only 1 account user and 1 audience of up to 2,000 contacts. Free users who had created multiple audiences before May 15 will retain those audiences, but you won’t be able to add new audiences or delete an audience in order to replace it. Legacy free users who had 1 audience before May 15 will not be able to add additional audiences. You’ll still be able to manage your contacts within audiences as you’ve been doing.

We understand you may have questions about changing from multiple lists to 1 audience. For Free plan users, we recommend using tags and segments to organize your contacts within 1 audience, rather than maintaining multiple lists. Learn more about how to use audiences.

What is my ‘whole audience’?
All Free plans now use our whole audience definition. Your whole audience is the total number of contacts that can be marketed to within our platform, across all channels—not just email marketing.

We switched to this definition when we launched the Audience Dashboard earlier this year. Your "lists" are now all included in your audience, which gives a holistic view of all of your contact data in one place. We’re now able to visually show patterns in your data that give you a clearer picture of who your audience is as a whole. The new dashboard shows ready-made segments that you can send targeted messages to and allows you to take action directly from the page.

Even though you can use Mailchimp for more than email, we categorize the main types of contacts based on their email marketing status: subscribed, unsubscribed, non-subscribed, and cleaned.

Subscribed, unsubscribed, and non-subscribed contacts are all part of your whole audience. Cleaned, pending, reconfirmed, archived, and deleted contacts are not included in your audience and you will not be charged for these contacts.

Archived contacts are those who you've removed from your marketing audience, but you still retain their data. You’ll have access to this data if you unarchive the contact. If an archived contact re-subscribes or makes a purchase, they’ll be added back into your audience.

But why am I charged for unsubscribed contacts? They unsubscribed because they don’t want to be contacted!
Mailchimp doesn't allow users to send email marketing to unsubscribed contacts, but they may still be eligible for other advertising. These contacts are included in the audience to provide users with the ability to understand who their contacts are, and decide whether and how to engage them through our platform.

It’s important to remember that you control who’s in your audience and how you reach them. If you only want to send emails to subscribed contacts, you can continue to do so! Moreover, we’re serious about preventing abuse on our platform. Our Terms of Use require our users to honor opt-out requests and comply with all applicable laws and regulations.

We offer tools to help manage your audience. For most users, we recommend archiving an unsubscribed contact to remove them from your billable audience. Archiving retains all the contact’s data. Some users may need to delete a contact for legal or regulatory reasons. Deleting a contact is a permanent and irreversible action in your account, so it’s important to make sure it’s the right option before taking action.

What if the addition of unsubscribed contacts pushes my audience total over 2,000 contacts?
If the addition of unsubscribed contacts pushes your audience total over 2,000 contacts, you’ll hit a paywall. You can stay on the Free plan by archiving your unsubscribed contacts to remove them from your audience, or you can upgrade to a new paid plan so you can re-engage them through other channels.

How can I remove unsubscribed contacts from my audience?
You can remove unsubscribed contacts from your audience by archiving them. Once you archive a contact, they cannot be marketed through any marketing channel in Mailchimp, unless and until they are unarchived. We have step-by-step instructions for archiving contacts in this tutorial. There may be some instances in which you are required to or want to delete a contact, and instructions for doing so are provided here.

Do I need to take action?
All legacy free users whose audience exceeds 2,000 contacts will need to archive some of their contacts to remain on the Free plan, or will need to upgrade to a paid plan. For legacy free users who are ready to upgrade, we’re offering an option to access a one-time support chat to help with the upgrade process. Once a legacy free user has upgraded to a paid plan, they’ll have regular access to our support teams through chats and email.

Can I upgrade to a legacy monthly plan?
No. If your audience has grown or you’re ready to try more features, you can upgrade to one of our new paid plans: Essentials, Standard, or Premium.

For legacy monthly plan users

I’m a legacy monthly plan user, has my plan changed?
No. You’ve already had access to our new platform design and marketing features, and you’ll continue to have the same level of access going forward. We value your loyalty, and appreciate being able to grow with you!

The whole audience pricing structure does not apply to legacy monthly plan users, who will continue to be charged based on subscribers—not contacts. These plans will continue to automatically upgrade and downgrade based on the number of subscribers.

Will my access to support change?
Legacy monthly plan users will retain their current access to our support teams.

What if I want to switch to an updated plan?
At this time, legacy paid users aren’t able to switch to the new plans. We plan to offer the ability to choose a new plan soon and we will share updated information here. In the meantime, you can continue to use your current plan.

For Legacy Pay As You Go Users

I’m a legacy Pay As You Go user, has my plan changed?
All Pay As You Go users will only have the features in the Essentials plan. To access more features, you'll need to switch to a different plan.

Can I switch from a legacy Pay As You Go plan to a legacy monthly plan?
You may find that switching from a Pay As You Go Plan to a monthly plan is more cost-effective for your business, or that you’re ready to access more features. If that’s the case, you’ll need to purchase one of our new monthly paid plans: Essentials, Standard, or Premium.

Change, pause, or cancel your legacy plan

If you have a legacy plan, you can also upgrade, downgrade, or pause it as needed. In some cases, this will require you to switch to our new pricing. You can also permanently close your Mailchimp account at any time.

Change or Pause a Legacy Plan
Close an Account

Resources

Our Terms of Use have been updated to reflect the new pricing plans.

We have several guides to help our users learn more about these changes, our new features, and best practices.

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